Folk Figure. For 28 years after the 1926, death of Rudolph Valentino, regular visits were paid to his tomb by a mysterious Lady in Black. Her identity was unknown, her mystery intriguing. Each year she left red roses, but in 1954, after her own notoriety drew crowds, the visits stopped. She was not seen again until 1977, and in 1981, she made her final pilgrimage to the tomb. Over the years, there have been more than a dozen Ladies in Black; some hired by Paramount Studios for publicity reasons, others who sought to promote themselves. Current scholarship, however, favors Ditra Flamé as the original and steadfast Lady in Black. Reportedly, she was born Ditra Helena Mefford. An orphan, she was later adopted by a family in Hollywood and given the name Princess Orvella Wilson. Rudolph Valentino was a family friend, and she related that he visited her in the hospital when she was 14. He gave her a rose and asked her to do the same for him if he should die, and she promised to put roses on his grave. She became a professional musician, playing the violin in a girl band called "The Blondes, Brunettes, and Redheads." When Valentino died, she was 21, and true to her word, she placed roses on his grave frequently. After moving away, however, she began the ritual of visiting just on the anniversary of his death. By 1940, however, a group of tourists were waiting waiting her, and in 1947 she finally identified herself as the president of the Hollywood Rudolph Valentino Memorial Guild which she said she founded shortly after his death. She gave up her annual visits to Valentino's tomb in 1954 when the attention she drew became intrusive. She spent the next twenty years working with a Papago tribal rescue mission and fund raising for the Rose of Sharon Mission. Though in poor health, she returned to Valentino's tomb for the 51st anniversary of his death in 1977, but would not make the journey again until 1981; it would be her last. She succumbed to heart disease the following year, leaving behind three large steamer trunks packed with hundreds of photos, letters, newspaper clippings, magazines, and books, all relating to Valentino.